A new investigation of the acoustic imaging with nematic liquid crystals

Abstract Acoustically induced birefringence has been studied in homeotropic cell of nematic liquid crystal in order to obtain an acoustic image detector. The response times and the sensitivity were improved with an electric field always applied on the liquid crystal cell. The improvement of the resolution was obtained by introducing a grid in the cell which divides the sample into a matrix of small liquid crystal cells acting as individual detectors. About the mechanisms, different phenomena occur at the same time, one of them being a mechanism which is not explained within the framework of previous models.